‘Drowned Pigs’ Ad Heads to ‘Porkopolis;’ Bacon-Eaters Blamed for Deaths

Hurricane Florence Has Gone, but PETA’s Billboard Is Blowing Into Town to Urge Everyone to Go Vegan and Save Lives—Including Their Own

For Immediate Release:
October 3, 2018

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

More than 5,500 pigs and 4.1 million chickens and turkeys drowned while trapped inside massive sheds in the floods caused by Hurricane Florence, and now, PETA plans to place a billboard in Cincinnati—known as “Porkopolis” for its pig-producing past—and in other cities, linking the drownings to meat-eaters, who feed the industry and therefore should accept responsibility for the animals’ deaths. The billboard features a photograph of two pigs swimming for their lives in the storm’s aftermath and proclaims, “Stop Eating Meat! They Die for Your Cruel and Dirty Habit.”

“When someone chooses the pork chop or the chicken sandwich, they’re supporting an industry that leaves millions of animals to drown slowly during hurricanes,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA’s billboard points out the inconvenient truth that meat-eaters bear responsibility for these animals’ deaths—and that the way to prevent such suffering is to go vegan.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—also notes that floodwaters from Hurricane Florence breached the pork industry’s massive manure lagoons, potentially contaminating the region’s water supplies with tens of millions of gallons of filth.

As well as sparing the lives of nearly 200 animals each year, people who go vegan reduce their risk of suffering from heart disease, diabetes, cancer, obesity, and numerous other health concerns.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.